How to listen for the voice of God when reading the Word of God?

How to listen for the voice of God when reading the Word of God?

(by Father Cantalamessa, the Pontifical Household preacher)

Q: The first question is that which readers also pose: What do you do to write your homilies?

Father Cantalamessa: [Laughs] What do I do? I read the Word of God. Before pondering on my reflections, I try to focus on the Word of God, to discover what the message is for this particular moment in which we find ourselves, in which I find myself, in which the Word of God emerges.

Usually, at the beginning it is a little light that is later confirmed little by little, consolidated, revealing a relation with a situation or present problem. Very helpful in this regard is a climate of prayer, of listening to the Holy Spirit, because it is he who has inspired sacred Scripture and only he can explain it, only he can apply it to today's world.

Q: What is your advice to Christians who want to meditate on the Word and draw lessons for their own lives or make useful decisions in life under the gaze of God?

Father Cantalamessa: It depends to a degree on the state, on the duties of the person. If it is only a question of personal use of the Word of God for one's life, the best thing is to begin to use the Word of God that the Church offers us through the liturgy: the Liturgy of the Hours, the Mass, etc, because often when the Lord speaks he uses the Church's choice, the readings of the day.

To be attentive to the readings of the day often reveals that it is an answer to a particular problem. A word seems to be made to measure for us to the point that one is constrained to say: "This was written precisely for me!" Hence, one must greatly value not the personal, but the community choice made by the Church in the liturgy.

Then there is the personal choice, namely, rereading the passages of Scripture that in the past have had a certain importance for us, have spoken to us. Often the Lord speaks through the same texts and says things that are always new and appropriate to the situations we are living. One must appreciate those Words of God that in the past have given us important guidelines.